You are still going to suffer from the big club cup final syndrome this season. Every little team wants to beat what they perceive as the big boys in their league and will play as if it's their final. But the good news is this season I think you will overcome that and will do it automatically. Penance having been served with seasons in this god forsaken league this time I think your manager will get it right. Only second place mind you not the top spot.......
I'm sure eventually we'll lose that big club cup final status to some extent at least due to familiarity... eventually. When players would give 200% against us, maybe now they'd give just 140%...
My vote is based on us getting Jamie Ashdown or a keeper of similar experience between the sticks - the rest of the team is shaping up very nicely.
I don't think anyone predicted that Portsmouth's sojourn in the lowest league would ever have been predicted to have been this long. The fact that Portsmouth are perceived as the big boys in the Second Division needs to be balanced by the fact that the fan-based arrangement of running the club may have put the club on a even keel yet seems to have precluded the team from having the resources to dominate the league. It is a totally strange situation as the attendance figures should provide the base for Portsmouth to dominate this league. I was talking to a fellow Saints fan at the non-league match yesterday and the fact that Portsmouth are seen as a "big club" in the league certainly has traction amongst the wider football fan base and you can appreciate why so many teams relish the two matches against Portsmouth. In a league generally lacking in glamour and good quality football, the Portsmouth fixtures most be those that fans of other teams put a ring around as soon as the fixtures are released. The travails of your manager last season did provide a bit of amusement for Saints fans as there is a perception that it cannot handle the pressure. There will be plenty of teams in your league this season who will fancy a decent stab at promotion too and I think that you will find it hard going. By tights, Portsmouth should be dominating this league and I wonder how many of you feel that Cook has got what it takes. Certainly, when you consider the spirit within the club when Mandaric and Redknapp got you promoted in the early 2000's there was a self-belief in the squad and the management really tapped in to the zeitgeist of the time. You don't get the feeling, as a Saints supporter, that Portsmouth have that same belief anymore and, if you look along the M27 corridor, it is Eastleigh who seem the lower league team who have the ambition. I did think that the fan based running of the club was something that deserved to succeed and, if Portsmouth could make this work, it would provide a democratic model for other clubs to follow and perhaps return things back to the pre-EPL heyday of football when clubs had a deeper local connection with their community. It has not prompted the kind of resurgence that Portsmouth merit and whilst I am sure that there are plenty of you who are glad to have a club to support, shouldn't you , by rights, not be looking over your shoulders to Eastleigh but trying to work out how the club can recover it's former status and at least cement a place in the Championship? I will be intrigued to see how you fair this season. Good luck.
I'd aim for the play-off place as a minimum - win or lose doesn't matter to me, just reaching the play-off would be my aim.
